Environmentalism – What Has It Become?

BY MICHAEL R. FOX – On May 18, 2010 Vice president Al Gore gave an incredibly depressing commencement speech at the University of Tennessee (http://tinyurl.com/2eypqqa). According to Gore, doom was imminent, even if he had to fudge the climate data to make it sound frightening. Glaciers are melting (some are growing, some are receding, as they have for centuries—Antarctica, for example, is growing, sea levels are rising—but very little. Just check with world expert Nils Axel Morner, (http://tinyurl.com/d4zayx). It is difficult to measure Gore’s impact on those who were there at Commencement or had read his speech, but it could not have been good.

Then on September 1, an environmental extremist named James Jay Lee took hostages at the Discovery Channel’s office in Silver Springs, Maryland. He was armed and claimed also to have explosives with him (http://tinyurl.com/2auvlyn). Lee made some very extreme demands which he posted on the web. (http://tinyurl.com/29nbala).

In the world most of us live in we are accountable for our own actions and beliefs. While some have unfairly suggested that gloomy, depressing, hateful speeches by Al Gore may have influenced Lee’s actions, however that would be as easy as it would be wrong. Nobody made Lee kidnap those 3 people in the Discovery Channel’s building, nobody made him threaten their lives, and nobody forced him to write his extreme manifesto. Unquestionably, however, there are many in the environmental movement who hold the same extreme views as quoted directly from his manifesto:

How people can live without producing more filthy children

All programs on Discovery Health-TLC must stop encouraging the birth of any more parasitic human infants

talk about ways to disassemble civilization

Civilization must be exposed for the filth it is. That, and all its disgusting religious-cultural roots and greed.

Broadcast this message until the pollution of the planet is reversed and the human population goes down! This is your obligation. If you think it isn’t, then get hell off the planet!

There is much more but we can see the nature of his extreme, contemptible anti-human views. Hopefully we can all agree that these are very extreme views to be held by a fellow American. We should dismiss him as an extremist, a loner gone off the rails, with little or no political impact on the world, our nation, or those around him. He would have few, if any friends who would share these extremist views.

Consider another person with many similar extremist views. This fellow believed that

Women could be forced to abort their pregnancies, whether they wanted to or not;

The population at large could be sterilized by infertility drugs intentionally put into the nation’s drinking water or in food;

Single mothers and teen mothers should have their babies seized from them against their will and given away to other couples to raise;

People who “contribute to social deterioration” (i.e. undesirables) “can be required by law to exercise reproductive responsibility” — in other words, be compelled to have abortions or be sterilized.

A transnational “Planetary Regime” should assume control of the global economy and also dictate the most intimate details of Americans’ lives — using an armed international police force.

You might want to dismiss these extreme statements also, as the words of some angry, anti-human crank. But they aren’t. These are the words of Obama’s science advisor, a man whom Obama seeks out for such scientific advice. These are the words of Dr. John Holdren. He co-authored the book, “Ecoscience” in 1977, where he wrote those words above. He and co-authors, Dr. Paul Ehrlich and Anne Ehrlich, wrote this book and put many of their horrendous thoughts in writing. He is now the Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, and Co-Chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology — informally known as the United States’ Science Czar.

An extraordinary analysis of Holdren’s writings appears at (http://tinyurl.com/26p5422). This is an incredibly detail analyses of Holdren’s exact words, and goes right to the exact written source and the exact pages in Ecoscience where Holdren’s horrendous quotes, values, and contempt for human life appeared. With the exact words and the exact pages presented, the doubters have no wiggle room.

What on Earth is it about Holdren which Obama approves, and would motivate him to appoint him to high office? Do they share the same values? What is it about the National Academy of Sciences which nominated him for membership in the National Academy of Sciences( NAS)? The NAS is just not that prestigious anymore, and is losing ground. What is it about the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) which elected him their president? Should we conclude that Holdren’s belief system of population control, sterilization of women, and the killing of infants is something deserving of the name “Science”, and were so compelling that they elected him president by the AAAS?

Should we still presume that the AAAS can be serious about science and the horrendous people it elects to their high offices? Should we ever take seriously any document or policy statement from the National Academy of Sciences, so long as they have demonstrably bad judgment in nominating Holdren and Ehrlich to the NAS membership?

It seems strange that as a society we dismiss the rantings and extreme views of the gunman who held employees of the Discovery Channel hostage, and called for the cessation of producing “filthy children”. On the other hand we highly honor a well-connected Ph.D., with similar extreme views, and even appoint him to be the president’s science advisor. It makes no sense.

Strangely as a society we dismiss the rantings and extreme views of a gunman who held hostage employees of the Discovery channel, who called for the cessation of producing “filthy children”. On the other hand we highly honor a well-connected Ph.D. with similar extreme views, by appointing him to be the president’s science advisor. It makes no sense.

However, as Eric Hoffer observed “One of the surprising privileges of intellectuals is that they are free to be scandalously asinine without harming their reputation.” —as quoted by Thomas Sowell in his book, “Intellectuals and Society”. Obama should know better. And Americans deserve better.

Michael R. Fox, Ph.D., is a nuclear scientist and a science and energy resource for Hawaii Reporter and a science analyst for the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, is retired and now lives in Western Washington. He has nearly 40 years’ experience in the energy field. He has also taught chemistry and energy at the University level. His interest in the communications of science has led to several communications awards, hundreds of speeches, and many appearances on television and talk shows. He can be reached via email at mailto:mike@foxreport.org

Michael R. Fox, Ph.D., a nuclear scientist and a science and energy resource for Hawaii Reporter and a science analyst for the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, is retired and now lives in Eastern Washington. A former Hawaii resident, he has nearly 40 years experience in the energy field. He has also taught chemistry and energy at the University level. His interest in the communications of science has led to several communications awards, hundreds of speeches, and many appearances on television and talk shows. He can be reached via email at mike@foxreport.org